Does hope purify?
1 John 3:3
And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Dozens of people have been murdered in the United
States, in the last 18 months, by young men on killing rampages.
When teenage boys killed their fellow
students at a high school in Colorado in 1999, our country was shocked and
appalled.
But, this wasn’t the first
mass killing in a school.
And it
wouldn’t be the last.
About a year and a
half ago, the murders of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary terrified and
enraged us again.
Just this week, a
killer shot and murdered a student and shot a teacher at a school in Oregon,
and then ended up dead himself.
There
seems to be an epidemic.
It’s even worse
than you might remember – take a look at this timeline starting from 1984:
http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/
Men from the ages of 55 to 11, most
of them under 30, have made the decision to seek out human beings and kill
them, arming themselves for the rampage, wanting to destroy their lives.
Sometimes they commit suicide directly.
Sometimes it’s almost a matter of suicide by
police.
None of them get away.
Why do they want to do this?
Why?
Why???
The President of the United States has said, in
light of the most recent killing, “this is not normal.” But isn’t “normal” a relative word? Certainly we would agree with the president’s
assessment, I mean, it’s kind of a no-brainer to call this “not normal” – but
isn’t it becoming normal? For some
people in our country, perhaps for some young men who live just down the
street, these killing sprees look like the exact right thing to do – they look
perfectly and brilliantly normal to them.
For me, the most chilling murder by young men is one that hits close to
home, literally. And, I think, it points
to a reason why the abnormal is becoming normal.
In 2009, in the small town of Mont Vernon, four
seemingly normal young men, ages 17-20, took a drive, armed with knives and a
machete, looking specifically for someone to kill. Anyone.
They broke into a home in the woods and found a woman and her
11-year-old daughter sleeping there.
They brutally and viciously stabbed, slashed, and hacked the woman to
death, hacking away at the little girl as well, so violently that they not only
smashed bones but also hacked bones into pieces. The little girl only survived by playing
dead. Why did these four boys do such a
thing?
No, they were not mentally ill. They wanted to know what it was like to kill
people. One of these boys, even after
the fact, thought that this was cool.
The four of them had called themselves the “Disciples of Destruction”
and enjoyed violent music and images. In
an article on CrimeLibrary.com, Michael A. Washburn writes, “Like many suburban kids with too much time
on their hands, the "Disciples of Destruction" were drawn together by
a shared fascination with the cultures of death and mayhem.” When Judge Abramson sentenced one of the
killers to life in prison with no parole (the harshest penalty allowable) +76
consecutive years, she said to him that she wanted “to ensure that you stay in
that cage for the rest of your pointless life.”
His pointless life.
Indeed. I think that’s exactly
the point.
Many of these serial killers who do all their
murdering in one rampage were, I’m quite sure, mentally ill. But, people who think that other people are
not worth anything, people who want to feel the thrill of killing, are not
necessarily mentally ill. We, as a
nation of people, absolutely have to get together and truly help people among
us who are suffering from mental illness.
We need effective ways to find them and treat their illnesses. But this won’t be enough. Just as banning or regulating guns won’t be
enough (as the Mont Vernon attack shows).
As these killings more and more become the new normal, we have to be
aware that there are young men among us whose lives are pointless, who have no
positive direction, who are drawn to darkness and destruction – who have no
hope.
What are we, as a society, offering them? Meeting beautiful women in bars, drinking
alcohol, getting laid, playing video games, and putting up with a crappy job
with a jerk for a boss so that they can afford the beer, the games, and maybe a
hot set of wheels? Isn’t this the ideal
life of a twentysomething? And, no, the
answer isn’t to provide better jobs – Please!
Is no one listening? Is no one
watching what young men are watching, hearing what young men are hearing? Frankly, I can see why some are rejecting
“normal” behavior. I can see why young
men might want to neither become couch-sitting gamers with five kids from three
nagging baby mamas nor workaholics with professional prestige and empty,
materialistic lives. I also see why some
would not want to be neatly dressed, mild-mannered fathers-of-two, whose
biggest excitement is an enthusiastic “Amen!” on a Sunday or the thrill of an
amusement park ride once a year. Is this
really all we’ve got? Have we nothing of
real value to offer?
Meaningful relationships. Yes, that’s a start. But… What do relationships mean? Working with their hands to create something
solid that actually helps real people.
Yes, that’s good, too. Are you
making your sons do that? If you are,
are you making them do it so that they can be “nice”? If so, it’s not going to work. Nice ain’t gonna cut it. Real love is the only thing that makes a
relationship meaningful. Real love is
the only reason to build improvements for other people’s lives. And real love is the only thing, the only thing, that keeps our lives
from being pointless.
No, I’m not going to blame the parents. Unless, that is, we, as a society, are the
parents. It does take a village to raise
a child, because often the parents can’t do it by themselves, either because
they are too busy, too ignorant, or too wounded themselves to know what real
love is. So… What is real love?
Let’s take the qualities that the young killers at
Mont Vernon were attracted to: courage, bravery, honor in brotherhood,
something different than ho-hum-get-through-the-day, the newness of discovery,
the experience of something hands-on, pushing themselves beyond where they had
ever been before. Yes, I know, even I’m
feeling kind of disgusting writing down those words in light of what they did
with their desires. But, now, take those
qualities to the classroom. Now they
don’t seem so creepy, but, rather, exhilarating and exactly right. Take those natural desires of young people to
the home and give them a direction in which to go. A path to take that is beyond ordinary. Help them to love something, really love something. I don’t mean a particular someone – how many
murders have been committed because a young boy put all of his energies into
one girl? I mean a love of nature, a
love of construction, a love of science, a love of arts – poetry, music, performance
arts, literature, painting, sculpture, photography, film, etc. – a love of
travel, a love of commerce, a love of sports (maybe, at least they won’t have
“time on their hands”) a love of community. Teach them not to look down on other
people. Teach them that we are all
interconnected. Teach them that every
human being has – that they have –
inherent value that no one and nothing can take away. Teach them about the human soul! Every human longs for something more! Don’t misinterpret, and therefore stifle,
that longing to mean more money, more clothes, more accolades, more excitement,
more thrills. The something more for
which we all long is Something More. Something more infinite than the outer
reaches of space-time… Something more intimate than the inner depths of
feelings. Infinite and intimate love
that calls for courage in making new discoveries and bravery in giving of
ourselves completely; infinite and intimate love that doesn’t merely help us
get through the day but pushes us beyond ourselves to the sharing of that
infinite and intimate love – real love.
I know that I can’t change the world. And I certainly know that these words are too
abstract to be translated into any concrete action. But, we seriously need to take a look at hope
in our country. (Not the kind of hope
that’s marketed and branded by politicians, who are too narrow-minded in their
understanding of hope, and who invariably disappoint anyway by getting bogged
down in politics, selfishness, or even just the practical, and lose sight of
the big picture – lose sight of Something
More.) Every person is unique and
has unique gifts for the building up and the giving of life. Every person is loved into being – hope in
that. There’s the point. No person is worthless. No matter how bored, how small, or how
voiceless. A culture of life would understand
this. A culture of life would make
decisions out of real love and not
out of fear or hopelessness. But… Ours
isn’t a culture of life, is it.
©2014 Christina
Chase
All Rights
Reserved
